Black Profits

Black Profits is a major single-village gang, located in First Village. It is said to have been in existence since long before any major gangs began organizing in 899, though little is known about its activities. It is said to have been the first gang on The Land to coin the subword phrase "black market" for the trafficking of illicit goods, though the term is thought to have existed long before any remotely organized gang could have possibly existed, and so this claim is much disputed. Nevertheless, there is a tremendous amount of mystery surrounding the gang, which is rumored to be far more powerful than there is any evidence to support. In fact, many people wonder if it might not secretly control smaller gangs in other villages, thus making it the first truly inter-village gang, potentially larger and more powerful even than LandOrder or InterGang. There is, naturally, no evidence to substantiate such speculation.

Perhaps the most wildly absurd theory ever advanced is that the gang had its origins in the Black Prophets, one of the many groups of the Prophet Movement of 399-404, which was ended upon the establishment of The Order. This, of course, is based merely on the apparent coincidence of the names of the two groups being homophones, and few people, if any, take it seriously, as the Black Prophets, like all other prophet groups of the time, were completely eliminated five centuries ago. Even if the Black Profits have been truly organized far longer than any other gangs, there's no way they could have existed that far in the past. The truth is, no one can definitively recall having even heard of the Black Profits prior to the Coming of the Order, when most of the groups currently considered to be "major" gangs first organized. If there's any connection to the Black Prophets at all, it could only be that those who formed the gang included at least one student of history, who thought it would make a clever pun, or perhaps even hoped it would help inspire the air of mystery that came to surround the highly clandestine gang.

In 912, when Larami Illuminatus broke off from InterGang to form the Illuminati, the Black Profits, so it is said, were among those she approached to join her new gang. If there is truth in this, clearly, they declined the offer.

The following is a list of known members of the Black Profits, though it is very limited and may be inaccurate, considering the especially secretive nature of the gang: